The Mandarin Institute of Theology is delighted to announce that Prof. Eleanor Ashworth, Director of Catholic Studies and Senior Research Fellow, has been awarded the 2026 International Patristic Studies Prize by the Association Internationale d'Études Patristiques.
The award recognises Prof. Ashworth's exceptional contribution to the study of early Church theology over a career spanning more than three decades. Her work on the Cappadocian Fathers, particularly her landmark monograph "Gregory of Nyssa and the Infinite" (MIT Press, 2018), has been widely recognised as transformative for the field.
Prof. Ashworth will deliver the award lecture at the International Patristics Conference in Oxford this August. Her lecture, titled "Reading the Fathers in a Pluralistic Age," will examine how patristic scholarship can contribute to contemporary interfaith dialogue.
"This recognition belongs to the entire MIT community," said Prof. Ashworth. "The interdisciplinary environment here has profoundly shaped my approach to patristic theology. Working alongside colleagues in Buddhist and Taoist studies has opened perspectives that would not have been possible in a purely Western academic setting."